Time to strike a blow?

The now-over BART strike in one sense was like the 16-day partial government shutdown. Both were self-inflicted wounds.

The now-over BART strike in one sense was like the 16-day partial government shutdown. Both were self-inflicted wounds.

Had a few blowflies in Congress been more interested in the country than ego-massage, there would have been no shutdown costing the U.S. economy by one calculation $24 billion.

Had both BART management and unions used the 60-day cooling-off period to actually negotiate, 400,000 commuters would not have been inconvenienced by the second worker walk-off this year.

But, of course, inconveniencing riders and having them rage provided the leverage the unions wanted and the incentive the management needed to finally reach a settlement.

Added to that incentive was the horror of a BART train accident that killed two maintenance workers over the weekend.

Outrage over the strike includes increasingly vocal calls for a legal prohibition against transit strikes.

The tentative agreement still has to be approved by the union rank-and-file and the BART directors. Approval is likely.

At one point, the union was demanding 23.2 percent in raises over three years. BART countered, offering a four-year contract with 1 percent raises contingent on the agency meeting economic goals.

The settlement: a 15 percent raise over four years but with increased worker contributions toward their health insurance and pensions.

Labor negotiations always start with workers overdemanding and management underoffering, but the chasm here made it clear an agreement would take time. And those were just the wage disagreements.

We would hope there won't be another BART strike ... ever. The Bay Area economy needs fast, reliable and efficient public transit.

BART is the nation's fifth-largest rail system. In the midst of the strike, calls began for a law banning future transit strikes. Oregon and New York have such laws. California law bans strikes by police and firefighters but is silent on transit strikes.

Gov. Jerry Brown supports such a ban. In fact, the morning the strike began he was in the Walnut Creek BART station asking commuters to sign his online petition urging state lawmakers to ban public transit strikes.

Such a proposal is problematic given the state's Democrat-controlled Legislature, but public outrage over not being able to get to work should be strong enough to at least get the idea heard.

The proposal deserves at least that. The public certainly does.

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